SPA Modeler

This past Saturday San Diego had the first Model Contest in Southern California since March last year. Here are the pics I was able to get while I was there.

I'll start with some general shots of some tables.


These were taken early in the show; I didn't get to get very many overall table shots:




Within an hour and a half, those tables were PACKED with armor! 52 entries in Armor, Fully Tracked alone!

These are the cars and trucks tables:







Now for a few of the individual models, starting with aircraft.


Here is most of the single engined 1/72 scale aircraft:




The green two indicates that this is a second place winner. Well deserved I think. It's a 1/48 scale MiG too, as are the following aircraft below.













This one and the next one are 1/32 scale aircraft:




This one is a 1/32 scale fully scratchbuilt Skycrane:




Now for some of the armor. I helped judge the 1/35th scale armor category and man what an extremely difficult task that was! Here's some reasons why:
















Here was an interesting hypothetical tank:


These were about half of the 1/48 scale armor entered:


And for those interested, here is the 1/72 scale armor entered. I did not include pics of my own five entries here since everyone here has seen them. Some, if not all, show up in the backgrounds of some of these pics anyway...

I gotta start with this guy who made all his 1/72 scale armor models as wrecks or range targets. Wow!







Remember. all those three models above range from 3 inches in length to 4.5 inches!


Here's the rest:


He opened the back up too. Not a good shot of the interior, my bad:













Next up are some of the Sci-Fi and fantasy models. Of course, there are the ever present Star Wars models.








This one has lit up dashboards and cockpit displays, as well as fully operational speed brakes which lift when you move the rod in front right or left.


This one had operating police lights:


Even though this isn't a Sci-fi or fantasy, I have to include this kitbashed racing control tower modified from a 1/87 scale airport control tower:


Finally here are some shots of the figures entered...












She's alive!!


Yes, his eyes are lit up:




And finally, the ultimate "Heavy Metal" band:


The whole stage was lit up too.

Finally, these amazing ships and subs were entered.




This is more of a diorama, but he only wanted the LST judged:










This one placed second:


And finally, someone did build the Yamato turret:


And there us all the pics I was able to take. Enjoy the show!

Some nice stuff on the tables! Thanks for sharing.

Mark, that looks like it was quite a show! I think that I recognize some of those builds. Were Sean Falleson and Dave Fredricks also there?

Thank you John! You aren't kidding!

Thank you Carlos! Yes, both Dave Fredericks and Sean Fallesen were there. I rode down with Sean. The Langley is his. Also, Jim Frye, Mike Budzeika and Terry Huber were down there too.

Great pictures and an even greater variety of subjects. Thank you very much for sharing, Mark!

Wow! Some really great builds there. That A-1 Skyraider!! Did you enter anything?

Thank you Torbin! Yes, it was amazing what so many people came up with.

Thanks Mike! That Skyraider was indeed over the top man! Yes, I entered ten models:

1/72 scale:

A-37 Dragonfly
Chieftain Mk.11
2S19 MSTA
M-109A2
Type B Omnibus 'Ole Bill'
Civilian Type B LGOC Omnibus.
Mercury Redstone Rocket
Convair Atlas rocket
D-9 Dozer

...and a 1/48 scale Stearman biplane, the one I reviewed here.

My Mercury took Third Place.

Yeah it was tough contest wise. All the people that were quarantined had me beat big time at the show.

Wow... that looks like an incredible show. So many models entered. I've been to Syrcon a couple times in the past and enjoyed attending them. These big city IPMS shows screams to me as "Welcome to The Big Leagues". How about vendors? Were there a lot of them in attendance?

Blacksheep, there were quite a lot of vendors there. I'd guess about 30 or so; all had two tables or more. Not much selection for me; but then again, I've already finished 1590 models so finding anything I have NOT built at a model contest is exceptionally rare! That's one of the biggest drawbacks to being so prolific.